Thai Massaman Curry is a flavor-packed, mild curry with a perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and creamy. Loaded with lean chicken and a colorful medley of vegetables, this easy-to-make restaurant favorite comes together in just 30 minutes in the Instant Pot.
Try this recipe which comes with the option to make pot-in-pot Jasmine rice!
In this Chicken Massaman curry recipe, I use store-bought curry paste and combine it with staples from my fridge and create a delicious meal that's truly a family-pleaser.
It's quick to make and super easy to customize. I make it with whatever I have in stock - chicken thighs or breasts, shrimp, fish, or tofu. The same goes for vegetables, I add whatever I have on hand, or just add 2 cups of frozen vegetable medley straight from the freezer.
It's a homemade Thai curry that is much healthier and faster than takeout. And if Massaman curry paste is hard to find, no problem! Check out the notes section where I share how to make it using red curry paste, which is easier to find.
Let's get started!
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Ingredients - Notes & Substitutions
Curry Paste: I like using Maesri brand for massaman curry paste as that has the most authentic taste. You can find it on Amazon, or your local Asian supermarket.
Cannot find Massaman paste? Make it with red curry paste instead. Add 1 teaspoon coriander powder + 1 teaspoon cumin powder to the curry to match the taste.
Coconut Milk: Use full-fat coconut milk of choice. I wouldn't recommend low-fat or fat-free coconut milk in this recipe.
Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken thighs are what I use in this recipe. Free free to use chicken breast or tenders. Just cut them into bite-size pieces for even cooking.
Vegetables: Add veggies of your choice. I add green beans, broccoli, carrots, and baby corn. Other veggies that go well are squash, zucchini, and snow peas.
No fresh vegetables? Use 2 cups of your favorite frozen vegetable medley. Traditionally, this curry is made with potatoes and onions, so feel free to add those. If adding potatoes, add them with the chicken.
Garnish: Thai basil leaves make a great finishing herb as they add a citrusy fresh flavor to the curry. If you cannot find them, use regular basil leaves or cilantro instead and tear them into smaller pieces before adding them.
A light squeeze of lime juice balances all the flavors.
Scroll to the recipe card for a detailed list of ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Thai Massaman Curry
Here are the step-by-step photos and instructions on how to make this chicken massaman curry in the Instant Pot:
Saute chicken: Preheat the Instant Pot on Saute mode and add oil, ginger, garlic, curry paste, and chicken. (Pic 1)
Add veggies and coconut milk: Sauté for 30-45 seconds then add carrots, onions, and baby corn. Stir in coconut milk and mix well. (pic 2)
Pressure Cook: Wait till the curry starts bubbling. This prevents the coconut milk from curdling under pressure. Cancel Saute, close the lid, and pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure.
Release pressure: Once done, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins, then release manually. Open the lid after the pin drops.
Add delicate veggies: Turn on SAUTE. Add green beans and simmer until they cook to your preferred doneness. Cancel Saute. (pic 3)
Add broccoli florets and let them steam in the pot for a few minutes. Squeeze a few drops of lime juice to finish this dish and serve with rice of choice. (pic 4)
How to Make Pot-in-Pot Rice with Curry
If you like to make White Jasmine Rice, you can cook the rice in the same pot as the curry, using the Pot-in-Pot technique. Here is how you make it:
- Assemble the curry in the pot as per the instructions. Cancel saute and place a trivet in the middle.
- Assemble the rice as per this recipe in an oven safe bowl and place it on top of the trivet.
- Close the lid and pressure cook for 5 mins. Wait for 10 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually.
Stovetop Chicken Massaman Curry Recipe
- Heat oil in a sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add ginger, garlic, curry paste, chicken and sauté for 30-45 seconds. Add carrots, onions and baby corn. Shake the coconut can and add that to the pan. Stir well.
- Wait till the curry starts bubbling. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pan and simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the green beans and cook them till your preferred doneness. Turn off the heat.
- Add the broccoli florets and let them hang rest in the curry for 2-3 minutes (or longer). This will give them enough time to steam and absorb the curry and still retain their crunch. Squeeze a few drops of lime juice to finish this dish.
Serving Suggestions
Thai Massaman Curry is traditionally served with steamed Jasmine rice. You can serve with the following varieties based on your preference:
- White Jasmine Rice: Simple, fragrant rice ready in 30 minutes. You can also make it with pot-in-pot following the instructions above.
- Brown Jasmine Rice: This is a healthier version of white Jasmine rice. It has the same nutty flavor and fragrance of a traditional Jasmine rice, but has almost 4 times the fiber than white rice.
- Cauliflower Rice: My husband and I like to eat a low-carb meal, so we eat it with shredded cauliflower rice that's comes together in 10 minutes.
How to Store
Store any leftover curry in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. To reheat, heat in a skillet until bubbling, or microwave it for 1-2 minutes.
How to Customize your Curry
It is extremely easy to customize this coconut curry to your liking. You can make it with shrimp or beef instead.
Make it Vegan/Vegetarian: You can make this curry vegan and vegetarian by substituting chicken with extra-firm tofu. Since tofu is already cooked, add it after cooking the curry, along with beans and broccoli. That will give it enough time to absorb the flavors of the curry.
Shrimp: Since shrimp cooks pretty quickly, cook the curry first, open the lid and then add the shrimp, along with the beans. Simmer on saute mode for 3-4 mins, or until the shrimp cooks through.
Beef: If using beef, increase the pressure cooking time to 30 minutes. Skip the baby corn and add it towards the end along with green beans. Follow the remaining instructions.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Curry Paste: I prefer Maesri brand curry paste since it is vegetarian (no shrimp paste) and tastes authentic. Other popular brands include Thai Kitchen and Mae Ploy (contains shrimp). Alternatively, use red curry paste with the addition of a teaspoon each of coriander and cumin powder.
- Coconut Milk: Any good thick full-fat coconut milk will work in this curry. If you use light coconut milk, please know that your curry will not thicken.
- Make it Vegetarian: You can make this curry 100% vegetarian by swapping the chicken with extra-firm tofu chunks or paneer cubes.
- Make it with Shrimp: Since shrimp cooks pretty quickly, cook the curry first, open the lid and then add the shrimp, along with the beans. Simmer on saute mode for 3-4 mins, or until the shrimp cooks through.
- Make it with Beef: Use 1-inch beef stew pieces and increase the pressure cooking time to 30 minutes. Skip the baby corn and add it towards the end along with green beans. Follow the remaining instructions.
- Customize the Vegetables: Veggies that go well are squash chunks, zucchini, and snow peas. You can even add a cup or so of any frozen veggie medley you have on hand. If adding potatoes, add them with the chicken.
- Make pot-in-pot rice: To make a one-pot meal, cook the rice using the pot-in-pot method along with the curry. Check out the detailed instructions above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Massaman curry is a flavorful, relatively mild Thai curry that shares influences from Indian and Malaysian cuisines.
Massaman Curry is a relatively mild curry as compared to panang or red curry. It tastes luxuriously creamy, slightly sweet with a touch of tang from the fresh lime.
Unlike other Thai curries, Massaman curry originated in southern Thailand and shared influences from Malaysian and Indian cuisine. It includes whole spices and the use of peanuts to make the curry paste.
Massaman Curry sauce is made with a combination of massaman curry paste and coconut milk. The curry paste is made using coriander, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves among other ingredients like red chilies, lemongrass, and peanuts.
While Thai Red Curry is spicy and made with dried red chilis, lemongrass, coriander and other aromatics, Massaman Curry is milder in comparison and made with additional warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
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📖 Recipe
Thai Massaman Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cut into bite-size
- 1 tablespoon light olive oil
- ½ inch ginger grated or pureed
- 2 cloves garlic grated or pureed
- 4 oz Maesri Thai Masaman Curry (1 can)
- 1 cup carrot chunks (1 large or 2 small carrots)
- 1 cup onion 1 medium onion cut in cubes or sliced
- 14 oz. cut baby corn (1 can or less, based on your taste)
- 14 oz. coconut milk (1 can)
Add after cooking the curry
- 1 cup french beans cut in bite size pieces
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- A light squeeze of lime before serving
Instructions
- Heat oil on SAUTE mode in Instant Pot for 30 seconds. Add ginger, garlic, curry paste, chicken and sauté for 30-45 seconds. Add carrots, onions and drained baby corn. Shake the coconut can and add that to the pan. Stir well.
- Wait till the curry starts bubbling. This prevents the coconut milk from curdling under pressure. Turn off Saute. Close the lid. Set the vent to sealing position if using DUO. Pressure cook on Manual/Pressure Cook for 5 minutes.
- Once cooking time is done, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins, then release manually by moving the vent to venting position in Duo, or pushing down the pressure vent in Ultra. Open the lid after the pin drops.
- Turn on SAUTE. Add green beans and cook for 2-3 minutes. At this stage, the beans retain their crunch, but you can cook them till your preferred doneness. Turn off SAUTE.
- Add broccoli florets and let them hang out in the curry for 2-3 minutes (or longer). This will give them enough time to steam and absorb the curry and still retain their crunch. Squeeze a few drops of lime juice to finish this dish.
Alternate Method: Stovetop Recipe
- Heat oil in a sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add ginger, garlic, curry paste, chicken and sauté for 30-45 seconds. Add carrots, onions and drained baby corn. Shake the coconut can and add that to the pan. Stir well.
- Wait till the curry starts bubbling. This prevents the coconut milk from curdling under high heat. Cover the pan. Reduce heat to medium and let it simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the green beans and cook for 2-3 minutes. At this stage, the beans retain their crunch, but you can cook them till your preferred doneness. Turn off the heat.
- Add the broccoli florets and let them hang out in the curry for 2-3 minutes (or longer). This will give them enough time to steam and absorb the curry and still retain their crunch. Squeeze a few drops of lime juice to finish this dish.
Video
Notes
- Curry Paste: I prefer Maesri brand curry paste since it is vegetarian (no shrimp paste) and tastes authentic. Other popular brands include Thai Kitchen and Mae Ploy (which contains shrimp). Alternatively, use red curry paste with the addition of a teaspoon each of coriander and cumin powder.
- Coconut Milk: Any good thick full-fat coconut milk will work in this curry. If you use light coconut milk, please know that your curry will not thicken.
- Make it Vegetarian: You can make this curry 100% vegetarian by swapping the chicken with extra-firm tofu chunks or paneer cubes.
- Make it with Shrimp: Since shrimp cooks pretty quickly, cook the curry first, open the lid and then add the shrimp, along with the beans. Simmer on saute mode for 3-4 mins, or until the shrimp cooks through.
- Make it with Beef: Use 1-inch beef stew pieces and increase the pressure cooking time to 30 minutes. Skip the baby corn and add it towards the end along with green beans. Follow the remaining instructions.
- Customize the Vegetables: Veggies that go well are squash chunks, zucchini, and snow peas. You can even add a cup or so of any frozen veggie medley you have on hand. If adding potatoes, add them with the chicken.
- Make pot-in-pot rice: To make a one-pot meal, cook the rice using the pot-in-pot method along with the curry. Check out the detailed instructions above.
Caitlin says
This recipe is so good! The first curry I’ve made at home that actually tastes as good as a restaurant!! My only question is - my curry turned out with a really thick layer of oil on the top at the end, is there a way to avoid this/avoid the oil separating from the rest of the sauce?
Aneesha says
Hi Caitlin, I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe. You can reduce the oil to 1 teaspoon if your curry was too oily, perhaps the curry paste had a lot of oil already. Enjoy!
M.G. says
Can I use ginger powder instead of fresh, I don’t use it enough every week to keep it on hand and when I buy it the amount I don’t use goes bad before I can use it next.
Aneesha says
Hi M.G.Absolutely! You can use 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger powder. A cool trick to preserving fresh ginger is to pop it in the freezer, then grate as much as you need and pop it back. You can also refer to this post for storage methods for ginger: https://spicecravings.com/how-to-store-ginger
Marsha says
Just wanted to say thank you! Ever since 2 years ago when I had Massaman Curry from a Thai restaurant in Mountainbrook, Alabama while visiting my cousin, I have been trying recipes to make it at home. This is the first recipe that I really loved. I don’t have an instasta pot so I made it on the stovetop. The addition of the veggies in your recipe makes it beautiful as well as tasty. I added sweet potatoes which I cut up and cooked in microwave just to soften them a bit and tossed them in when I added the broccoli.
Aneesha says
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Marsha! Thanks for your kind words. I hope you try other curry recipes too!
Elise says
Super easy recipe but it’s missing something. It’s so close to being perfect but it’s just missing something and I can’t put my finger on it 😅
Aneesha says
Hi Elise, thank you. Which brand of Thai curry paste did you use? If not using Maesri, try adding 2-3 teaspoons of creamy peanut butter to the curry next time. I'm pretty sure that should do the trick. Enjoy!
Kate Smith says
There were so many stinkin' ads on the page, that I could only see 3 lines if type at once. I gave up. I tried to paste a screen shot here so you could see what I'm talking about, but it won't let me.
I fully understand why advertising is needed to support your work, but this is ridiculous. The Facebook, twitter and Pinterest buttons are irritating too, as they cover up the information.
Aneesha says
Hi Kate, I'm sorry you had that experience. To begin with, I have removed those social buttons. I'll also check on my ad network to see why the ads have gone up. Thank you for understanding why bloggers need to have ads on the page. I'll do my best to fix this issue. You can also click on the 'Jump to recipe" button or print it for convenience. Hope you enjoy it.
Nancy May says
Ma'am (sorry I'm southern), to a great extent the number and particular ads are due to your own settings. You have more control over that than the blogger.
Aneesha says
Hi Nancy, 'I' am the blogger you are referring to, and these ads pay my blog's bills and keep it running. It takes much more than just ingredients to create, test and publish these recipes that you can access free of any charge, then promote it and continue to keep it updated. It's just like you flipping a magazine or watching a TV channel which does not even give you a choice of skipping these ads, I am providing you that option. Please feel free to use the 'jump to recipe ' button.
Sue R says
Great tasty quick meal. I love Maesri brand pastes too. Thank you!
Aneesha says
Hi Sue, I'm so glad you enjoyed it too! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Monica Capuchino says
This recipe was not good! That paste that I bought was the same one you used and it just doesn't have the same taste as the Massaman curry I'm used to. Better if you make it from scratch.
Aneesha says
Hi Monica, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. Many Thai restaurants and recipe developers use the same brand of curry paste, but I understand that personal taste can be different. Hope you enjoy the homemade version.
Dave says
Is it really much of a recipie if you're making it from a store bought paste
Aneesha says
I hear you Dave, but many busy families like mine find it very useful to follow clear instructions on how to use a store-ready paste. Also, you'll be surprised to know that many Thai restaurants use store-bought pastes in their curries especially since some of the ingredients can be hard to source. I hope you give it a shot!
Andy says
Dave, do you really want to scout out about 30 ingredients at the international market and then make your own paste? I don't. The paste is convenient and tasty. How far does someone have to go before a recipe qualifies as "REAL" anyway? Raising your own chickens on non-GMO grains that were sown by monks in the foothills of the Himalayas?
Shelby says
Hi Aneesha,
I tried your recipe and had trouble with the potatoes over cooking and then breaking down in the curry. Any tips on how to avoid this? I used about 1x1inch cubes of potatoes.
Thanks,
Shelby
Aneesha says
Hi Shelby, any chance you used russet potatoes? I use 'gold potatoes' and cut them in 1.5 inch pieces so they hold their shape while pressure cooking. Try that next time and I'm sure it'll work. Hope this helps!
Leonie says
Hi! I wanted to cook this recipe but I’d like to substitute the chicken with tofu. I’m not a very experienced instant pot cook and wanted to ask when to add the tofu. Thanks!
Aneesha says
Hi Leonie, you can add tofu 'after' pressure cooking and simmer it for 2-4 mins in the curry. I recommend using extra-firm tofu. Hope you enjoy this curry!
Sam says
Hi! I was hoping to make this later on in the week..it looks incredible! Could I add linguine or udon noodles to this do you think? Thanks and happy new year!
Aneesha says
Hi Sam, the combination sounds delicious but I think the cook time of Udon and linguine noodles would probably not match with the curry and they'll end up soaking all the curry anyway. You can always cook them separately and add them while serving. Enjoy!
Kristin says
Do you think I could use yellow curry paste instead, it is all I have on hand and I want to give this a try
Aneesha says
Hi Kristin, Absolutely! The taste of yellow curry is different than Massaman, but you'll still end up with a delicious Thai curry. Same proportions work. Enjoy!
Shanna says
I am very new to Instant Pot. I'd like to cook the rice in with the curry as you show but not sure what size and type of inner bowl is good to use?
Aneesha says
Hi Shanna, the inner bowl should be oven safe and be able to fit easily in the instant pot, with enough space all around to side it in and take it out. When I place my rice bowl in, there is roughly 1 inch space all around it. Hope that helps.
SamG says
Love it every time we make it!
Aneesha | Spice Cravings says
Hi Sam, thanks for sharing that. It's one of our favorite curries!
IPnewbie says
Thank you! That's what I did and it turned out well - the chicken was so tender and infused with flavor, and I loved the combo of veggies. This was only my second time cooking dinner with the Instant Pot - starting to gain confidence ????.
aneeshasg says
That sounds great! Glad you enjoyed the flavors in this recipe. Cooking with Instant Pot involves a bit of a leaning curve, but once you get the hang of it, the results are amazing! Look forward to you trying more of my recipes! Thanks!
IPnewbie says
Thanks! For the Instant Pot, when are you supposed to add the ginger and garlic?
aneeshasg says
Hi again! Once the oil is hot, you can add ginger garlic along with chicken and curry paste. I just clarified that step in the recipe. Thanks!
IPnewbie says
Are you supposed to drain the corn before adding it? Or do you dump the whole can in?
aneeshasg says
Hi there! Yes, you should drain the baby corn before adding it. I just modified the instructions to add clarity on that. Thanks for pointing that out! Hope you enjoy this curry, it's one of my favorites!
Michelle says
Hi Aneesha,
Another winner! We LOVED this. The chicken was unbelievably tender. Best result I've had so far in cooking chicken in the pressure cooker.